Posted on 01/05/2012 3:41:51 PM PST by milwguy
judge ruled Thursday that the state Government Accountability Board needs to take more aggressive action to vet recall signatures that are expected to be submitted in two weeks against Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican office holders.
The ruling by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis came in a case filed Dec. 15 by Walker's campaign committee and Stephan Thompson, executive director of the state Republican Party, asking Davis to order the accountability board to seek out and eliminate duplicate and fictitious signatures and illegible addresses in recall petitions.
Davis, who refused to enter injunctions in the case, based his decision on his interpretation of state law, more than on equal protection arguments brought up by the Republicans. He also said that the board must take "reasonable" efforts to eliminate such signatures.
Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the board, said after the hearing that his organization would have to discuss the decision to see what it needed to change in procedures already in place.
In court, Kennedy testified that entering signatures into a database to look for duplicates could take eight extra weeks for his staff, and could cost $94,000 for software and outside help.
Steven M. Biskupic, attorney for the Republicans, argued that not catching invalid signatures violated the constitutional rights to equal protection of people who chose not to sign recall petitions.
He also cited a media report that one man claimed he'd signed recall petitions 80 times, and submitted a petition from last summer's attempt to recall Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover), in which the accountability board allowed a "Bugs Bunny" signature to be counted. Kennedy said the signature was counted because Holperin didn't follow the proper procedures for challenging it.
In issuing his ruling, Davis said, "Counting the signature of Bugs Bunny is something only a lawyer could make seem OK."
Recall organizers are collecting petitions now to recall Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican state senators. The petitions are due to the accountability board Jan. 17, and the board is charged with validating them and deciding if recalls are wa
What's considered "reasonable". Lawyer/judge-speak for do as you please.
Let me know if you have some smart ideas like that for my petition drive in Houston on two immigration measures. Need to figure out a way to authenticate the voters on SOS website but two sets of signatures needs some thinking. Your insight would be greatly appreciated.
www.stopthemagnet.com
But in government, they would have to budget 26 weeks and $100k to accomplish that same query.
All I know is if it was a democrat recall the libs would be screaming for the GAB to reject false signatures.
“The labor union thugs who are organizing this recall will stop at nothing to get Walker out of office.”
If the recall fails, I really hope that the Governor is wearing a kevlar vest.
Good news.
Let me “aks” you guys a question: is there ANY CHANCE IN HELL Wisconsin would vote against Hussein in November?
Now everyone go sign the petitions as Daffy Duck and Micky Mouse! Let them think they have enough signatures...then wammo not enough.
But you can have your kids taken away from you if you name one Adolf Hitler. True story.
If they can’t cheat they can’t win. This is the beginning of the end. IL will soon be surrounded by sane states.
Umm, that’s what *I* do for a living. ;)
If I’m doing the entry, we don’t even need the programmers :P
Mine would be quite sortable so double entries could be spotted really quickly.
Another forum site (actually a couple that use the same software) that I use daily as well do it routinely. It detects when you have re-posted and stops.
It shouldn’t be that hard. It is a shame there is no forward development of this forum environment.
The biggest problem I guess would be getting the data. Any programmer could take the data file and load it into a table like Access. Once the data is loaded you compare the table to itself . read first record on table then scan the same table looking for matches on last and first names. If you get a hit print out the name then go to the next record and repeat until all records read.
The biggest problem I guess would be getting the data. Any programmer could take the data file and load it into a table like Access. Once the data is loaded you compare the table to itself . read first record on table then scan the same table looking for matches on last and first names. If you get a hit print out the name then go to the next record and repeat until all records read.
I post from my phone. Sorry about multiple posts.
I post from my phone. Sorry about multiple posts.
Baby, Baby, don’t get hooked on me... ;^)
Why do you think our GAB says they cannot check for duplicate signatures and addresses, as well as obviously bogus names (Mickey Mouse, etc.)?
If you said that they don’t want to check, you’d be right.
Wonder what we pay them for? Seems to me that there is a big fat budget cut Walker could take — low hanging fruit.
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